Many different kinds of portfolios, binders, books, and folders exist, which hereinafter will be referred to generally as folders. Some well known types include three ring binders, spiral-bound notebooks and clasped folders. These are used to retain individual sheets, usually of paper, so that they can viewed as if they were bound in a book. Sometimes clear envelopes are included to retain and protect flat items for later display or study. These retained items typically include warranties, magazine clippings, reports and graphs, certificates, legal documents, photographs and negatives, collectible stamps and any other flat items including pressed flowers or other organic samples, where clear, usually plastic, envelopes can provide safe storage and display.
When viewing what is stored within such a folder, it is troublesome to find which of the pages include what material. Therefore, some folders, especially of the three ring type include index pages, usually of a relatively stiff material that have a tab that sticks out which when inserted between pages can indicate what is in the next section of the folder.
However, there has been a need for index means for folders which use when permanent binding is used or when indication of an exact page rather than an adjacent page is required Such devices, to be commercially viable must be extremely economical to produce, easily adaptable to existing folder constructions, light-weight, and constructed and installable so no interference with any of the normal functionality of a portfolio, binder, book, or folder occurs.
The present invention includes a plurality of transparent envelopes with a side connected to a folder cover, a bottom side usually completely closed or sealed, an open top which may have a protective flap and an outer side with a plurality of slits formed therein. The slits may be an odd or even number, but when the slits are greater than four in number, even numbers of slits are preferred as such minimize the number of different index card that need be furnished. These index cards are formed to fit snugly within the envelopes, but have at least one cutaway inner corner on the opposite side from their tab to make insertion of the index card into an envelope easy. The index cards include index tabs positioned on a side edge to slip through a slit to provide an index tab for the envelope. When three silts are used in the various envelopes, pluralities of two or three separately formed index cards are provided, usually in the back of the folder when it is sold where multiple index cards can be stored in the back envelope. When four slits are provided in each envelope, pluralities of two different index cards can be formed for insertion through the slits while when six slits are provided in each envelope, pluralities of three different index cards can be formed for insertion through the slits.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a light and economical indexed folder for display of materials, which increases the utility of the folder, especially those equipped with transparent envelopes for the display of information on sheets that need to be indexed directly and held flat.
Another object is to provide a versatile index system for a folder or binder where the index tabs are firmly retained, yet movable by the owner.
Another object is to provide index means which can be constructed to have many vertical positions along the edge of a display page.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after considering the following detailed specification and drawings wherein: